Cyberpunk City

Session 005 - TE

System Dump

The rest of the trip to Astoria went off without a hitch. Lucky for me, I had a friend on the outskirts of Astoria who owed me a favor. I glanced at my Cylock time band….. and everything went black….

11:47am

I vaguely remember downing the last vial of Delerium I had in one fucking big needle. Seeing as how regular downers of Delerium use half a vial for heavy trips, me taking a full vial was guaranteed to make me fucked for the next 9 hours.

I had hoped that a T4000 Assassination Droid being sent to hunt me from some unknown enemy. while I listened as two fisters the size of gorillas murdered a the old Chinese man who saved my life for a cheap trip. I had made it out clean, but I couldn’t shake the sound of death and that type of stress can kill a man…. so I took a little something to ease the pain…

“Collecting evidence had gotten old a few hundred bullets back. I was already so far beyond the point of no return I couldn’t remember what it had looked like when I had passed it.” – From the archives of “Collision_Entertainment_2001_Max_Payne_exe.”

3:09pm

I glanced at my Cylock time band….. 3:43 pm, I was nearing the halfway point of my trip, the point where everything comes back into focus and I can start to make sense of the world around me. I was fully aware of the fact that I had been standing around for near 2 hours waiting to tail this bimbo. who was “suspected” of committing adultery, but I knew the truth, everyone knew the truth, of course this Celetian hottie was only after the money of the fat Brutagien slime ball that desperately tried to buy painfully expensive trinkets to keep her interest. All I needed was the plasmaphotic proof of the adultery…. I decided to wait another hour

4:09pm

The hour pass painfully slow. Stress swelled in my chest as I worried about not making this no brainer case into a quick cash deal for some Delerium…. I knew I was out and that my high only lasted another 4 hours and that it would be a quick 6 hours before my body would start to turn nasty without the precious Delerium….

4:24pm

After 15 minutes of painful waiting and deliberation, I decide to walk down to the south districts to see my old friend Gunther Hermann, an ex-net runner with the physical prowess of a full blown lunar-ox. He owed me big.

647pm

I was well on my way going down the long fade off of Delerium. I had managed to stumble myself to Hermann’s turf. Just a few short-cuts and two passwords later I was closing the door behind me of Hermann’s company building iSpilledMyDrink inc. Hermann and I went way back, I had enough dirt on him to bury him 6 feet under twice over, he owed me and I knew he couldn’t say no to my offer.

“To be expected with a grid failure of that size. half the outskirts went out” Hermann responded, his voice unchanging

“BlueSun is fucking worthless…. don’t give a shit about anyone off their Island”

Hermann stared intently at me for a few moments for seemingly deciding to keep his opinion to himself

“We got a deal?” Hermann asked harshly

“I still feel like you’re fucking me” I said, staring back into Hermann’s eyes

“You know as well as I do that the dirt you dug up on the Assassination attempt of Bill Taggart doesn’t hold as much weight as it once would have, I have been out of the game for quite some time now”

I knew this to be true, I had planned for it, I had been blackmailing Hermann for years, keeping the night life in my veins and ugly grin on my landlords face happy. I was going to take a hit to my livelihood, but hey, my life was in danger

“Give me the name of the guy, access to one of your apartment fronts, and the standard equipment of one of your street goons” I said smoothly

I kept my face as Hermann looked me up and down. He knew that what I was asking for was minimal in comparison to what I could get out of him…

“Agreed” Hermann said extending an arm “I would much rather us settle our debt peacefully. no reason for bad blood, I’d like to think we’ve become somewhat friends over the months” Hermann said casually lighting up his pipe

Hermann was as shrewd as they came and nearly impossible to read

Greeting Hermann’s handshake “Agreed…. now how about a small favor to seal the deal before I go on my way?”

Hermann eyed me

“Just a few hits of Delerium. I’m out and Deletium is a short 5 hours away….”

“After a long cold hard stare directly into my eyes, Hermann rolled his eyes and scoffed, opening his desk drawer. He rolled 5 vials of Delerium across the table, enough to last me a week, clearly Hermann had taken pity on me. Hermann pulled out a pen and scribbled on a small piece of torn paper”

“Reckard” Hermann said as he handed me the piece of paper “this officially ends our business transaction and if you step foot on my property I will send my men after you”

Asshole I scoffed to myself. “I can see his eyes shake from the fear the quivers inside of them, but no reason to senseless violence”

With only a nod I set off towards the apartment that Hermann has set up in Soho for his operation, promised to be stocked with enough weapon and supplies to defend myself for a week.

9:07:pm

After 20 some minutes of drug induced confusion I made my way into the safe house. A package was left next to the bed. A LAZ-50 pistol with 4 clips sat on the beside table with a stack of 1000 credits and a dull pair of brass knuckles sat a top, finishing the pile. I read the small strip of paper as I turned out the light and laid down. I rolled on my side and slide my hand underneath my pillow, gripping the handle of the LAZ_50, as I thought of the name ascribed sloppily into the paper